Viking Drakkar sails

[toms10]

Hi MSW,

I am starting to research and think about the sail on my scratch built Drakkar. I noticed that many of the various drawings and pictures show the sail with reef points. I was under the impression the idea of reefing a sail did not come about until hundreds of years later. 
 

i don’t believe there is any evidence or actual sails from the viking era to verify. The only thing that might show something is a piece of viking art depicting a sail. 
 

i like the look of the reef points on the sail but don’t want to put them on if they are unrealistic. Does anyone out there have any information one way or the other?

 

Thanks

Tom

[Knocklouder]

Hi Tom, I would contact @Louie da fly that man know all about these things.

Bob M    

[wefalck]

There have been no sails preserved from that period and all reconstructions are based on incisions on grave- or memorial stones. The interpretations vary considerably and different options have been tried out on replicas in order to understand what the most likely interpretation could be.

 

I would check the publications coming out of Roskilde museum.

[toms10]

Here is question #2 about viking sails or any other sail with an insignia on it. Does the insignia get put on both sides of the sail or just the front side facing the bow?  I believe it is only on the front side similar to what I have seen on 18th century Spanish warships.
Below is a color pencil rendition of what I would like to put on my current drakkar build. Again, I believe it is only on the front side but I just wanted to see if the expert talent pool out in MSW land agreed. 

Thanks for any input,

Tom

[Knocklouder]

Hello, I am no expert  but yes paint the white and red strips, both sides  then your dragon. That's how I did mine, green first then the two headed Dragon.  Good luck.

Bob  M

sorry just on the front side lol..

Edited December 11, 2024 by Knocklouder

[Louie da fly]

Regarding reef points. As far as I know there is no physical evidence and no contemporary representations of reef points on Viking ships' sails. There are, however, representations of other means of controlling the sails. I find this one particularly interesting:

which is backed up with three of similar type but simpler:

    

There's a modern interpretation of how that would have worked at https://vikingar.historiska.se/object_details.php?object=A073A34E-2719-4C7F-BAAD-4B681453D2CA&e=&l=en

 

And here are some more representations of sails (the paint on the last one is modern), but not a lot of help in determining how the sail worked:

 

       https://i.pinimg.com/236x/92/10/f6/9210f65d03c07b188236eea760be023b.jpg   

Yes, reef points did exist in mediaeval times - in fact they were superseded by bonnets in the 15th century, which in turn were superseded again by reef points (of a different design) about a century later. There's a discussion of mediaeval reef points at https://modelshipworld.com/topic/25641-the-elusive-hulc-by-woodrat-finished-132-plank-on-frame-a-speculative-reconstruction-of-a-mediaeval-merchantman/page/6/ - but the earliest record I have of them is the seal of la Rochelle c. 1200,     

Hastings of "13th century"   and Dublin of 1297 

So to answer your question, no evidence for reef points on Viking ships, but some other very interesting rigging ropes which I would dearly like to be able to figure out as to how they worked. And the coin pictured above shows they seem to have furled their sails using brails, but no evidence as to how they shortened sail.

 

Steven